A flashlight is an essential tool for law enforcement officers. As part of an officer's duty gear, a flashlight provides an illumination source that can be critical during night shifts or when entering buildings and other potentially dark spaces. Law enforcement officers sometimes need to utilize physical force against perpetrators in the line of duty. Because one of the officer's hands can be utilized holding the flashlight, it is useful for the flashlight to have a secondary function as a weapon. Flashlights exist in which angled edges are positioned around the bezel of the head, for self-defense purposes. When needed, such a flashlight can serve as a weapon, for attacking an identified enemy. Positioning the angled edges around the heed of a flashlight naturally inflicts a wound on the enemy, as the force of the hand and arm movement is transferred to the edge when the flashlight is used to strike.
Some self-defense flashlights instead have angled edges positioned around the tail-end. Hand and arm force is transferred to spikes is this position when the flashlight is brought down to strike an enemy backwards, with the tail-end directed towards the target.
Whether the angled edges are positioned around the head or the tail, these edges of self-defense flashlights are dull, in order to prevent them from accidentally harming the carrier. If the angled edges where sharp, the law enforcement officer could easily be accidently cut or injured while carrying the flashlight. Having dull edges in a self-defense flashlight limits its usefulness, as a sharp surface would inflict greater injury on the enemy. Additionally, the exposed angled edges are subject to breaking or damage, rendering them even less useful. Furthermore, a potential enemy can see the angled edges, and thus the law enforcement officer looses the element of surprise that can be provided by a concealed weapon.
What is needed is a self-defense flashlight without the disadvantages of existing systems described above.